For Amber Waves of Grain

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"When industrial agriculture fails, it fails miserably," says Scott Marlow of the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA. "The industrial model is efficiency through uniformity. A sustainable-agriculture model is stability through diversity. Homeland security is big right now, and these two models are going to be a big issue in terms of how we administer agriculture and what we support."

The Issues

Conservation Security Program
This program pays farmers to incorporate ecofriendly practices, such as setting up buffer zones that prevent soil erosion or water pollution. The more they do for the environment, the more they get. The program, championed by Democratic senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon, was passed in the 2002 Farm Bill, but funding for it was gutted in years that followed because of pressure from the Bush administration. The program retains support in Congress, in part because it provides a farm subsidy mechanism allowed under international trade rules, so it might have a shot at funding in 2007.

Conservation Reserve Program
This program pays farmers to keep marginal and environmentally sensitive land fallow. It enjoys broad support as a way to limit the production of certain crops -- a means of maintaining higher food prices. (Low food prices, a direct result of overproduction, have led to the decline of the average American farmer.) Gun owners also favor it, as land set aside in CRP is often used as hunting ground.

Energy
With oil and gas prices soaring, sustainable-farming and clean-energy advocates believe that 2007 will be a ripe opportunity to ratchet up provisions for renewable fuels in the Farm Bill. R. Dennis Olson of the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy has high hopes for switchgrass, a soil-enriching, easy-to-grow crop that can be baled and burned in power plants in lieu of natural gas. (Olson concedes that scientists have yet to evaluate the efficiency and cleanliness of burning switchgrass.) Activists also hope to win more money for farmers who want to use wind and solar power.

Rural Development
Anyone who has driven along country roads lately knows that rural America has emptied out -- the people have left, and businesses have followed. Proponents of sustainable farming hope the next Farm Bill will include money for farmers to set up businesses such as canneries, butcher shops, and cheese-making facilities. The 2002 Farm Bill set aside $40 million a year in such "value-added producer grants," but the money has been cut every year since.

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